The name given to the organized attempts made by the Turks on at least
three occasions to extirpate Armenians living in Asia Minor. The first series of
massacres occurred in 1895-96, and appears to have had the aid of the Turkish
Government. Again in 1909 outbreaks occurred at Adana, in Syria, and its vicinity,
having at least the connivance of the Turkish Government. The third, and
probably the worst, outbreak occurred in 1915, after Turkey entered the war as
Germany’s ally. Thousands of the Armenian population of Asia Minor were
either killed on the spot or else deported into the most inhospitable spots in the
Ottoman Empire, there to die of starvation. The total number of those who have
lost their lives is not exactly known, but is large enough to brand such procedure
as one of the most_ shamelessly brutal race massacres of all* time. That
religious differences or economic disturbances- the Armenians are the small capitalists
of Asia Minor-are not responsible is proved by the fact that in normal
times Armenian and Turk work together without grave friction. It would
appear that the desire to eliminate an alien race and to destroy any possible
allies for a Russian advance in Asia Minor are at the bottom of the affair ;
that it is the Government and not the average Turk who is responsible. - Germany
could have stopped the massacres by a word, but she withheld that word.
For German testimony to Turkish atrocities in Armenia and responsibility of the
German Government therefor, see the book by a former German army officer and
war correspondent, Dr. Harry. -Stunner, Two Years in Constantinople (trans.,
1917).